Saturday at Devoured: Lots of Beef, Not Enough Veggies, Dessert or Booze

Devoured definitely gives new meaning -- in a good way -- to the all-you-can-eat-buffet. We weren't blown away by the beverage choices yesterday during the food festival's first day at the Phoenix Art Museum -- but who has room for booze with food like this? At least the shrimp were drunk.

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Chef Silvano Salcido Esparza of Barrio Cafe demonstrates how to make drunken shrimp.

​Get the rest of the dish -- including our take on veggies and desserts -- on Devoured after the jump.

​Sam Fox's restaurants were out in force. Modern Steak's Kobe beef and lobster slider was a real palate-pleaser and whatever you do, do not leave without trying a peanut butter mousse cup from The Arrogant Butcher booth.

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Culinary indulgence at its best: Modern Steak's Kobe slider with lobster, bacon and caviar aioli.

Switch served up a well-loaded seafood crepe with an asparagus, corn and tomato salad and a lemon, garlic aioli, while Ken Chevrount's wine bar gave us a New York strip tartar laced with truffle oil, capers and olives. Talavera had chilled pea shooters with lump crab meat as well as grilled New York strip with a lobster bernaise. J&G went with New York strip as well, but instead opted for a presentation with shitake mushrooms, asparagus and a caramel soy sauce.

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Talavera shows an elegant version of surf and turf with New York strip steak and lobster bernaise sauce.

District and Udder Delights made a splash with dramatic displays. District's booth was complete with a vintage-looking popcorn machine, cotton candy blossoming out of a bed of grass and an upscale corndog. Udder Delights was also down with the savory/sweet combo with a pasilla flatbread with bacon, house-made ricotta, chipotle aioli, corn and pesto. The sweet potato ice cream and spicy chocolate pastries were not as good as the flatbread, but we still downed them happily.

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Leaps and bounds ahead of other participating wineries, Teira was offering sauvignon blanc, zinfandel and merlot on tap.

​Jared Porter, executive chef at The Parlor, used this as an opportunity to test out new menu items. Porter created a charred octopus dish with wood-fired peppers and onions, crispy chickpeas, capers and a citrus vinaigrette.

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Chef Porter put forth an ambitious dish using octopus, which was actually well-received.

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We don't mean to diss the veggies here, but the healthy, vegetarian food items were a bit of a disappointment. Unless you are a vegetarian who is also a borderline alcoholic, Devoured may not be worth your $50. It's difficult to justify spending that kind of money on garbanzo bean salad and vegetarian "sausage" and peppers.

Those with an enormous sweet tooth should also be cautioned here. The selection of dessert was just kinda eh.